This exploratory paper focuses on the technological development of the
toy medium with an interest in toys’ capacity to mobilize homo ludens,
the playing human. By conducting an extensive literary review on the
history and the present of mobile play objects, the study demonstrates
how toys have developed from early moving and mechanical automata to
playthings that move by themselves through in-built computerized
components. The interest is two-fold: By analyzing the historical
trajectory of mobile toys, the authors highlight the role of both toys
and their players as participants in technologically mediated, phygital
play. This hybrid form of playing combines the physicality of playthings
with both mechanical and digital features. The results of the review
show how toys—character toys in particular—have transformed from
entertaining, self-moving spectacles to educational machines that
mobilize the player both physically and geographically. Based on the
results of the literary review, the authors suggest a continuum that
visualizes the development of the types of toys that afford mobility in
play of the past, present, and future. The paper concludes with the
observation that phygital, playful technologies, such as character toys,
have the capacity to influence human well-being in its various
dimensions. By making them mobile, toys as a medium invite engagement
with phygital playful technologies to enhance physical, cognitive, and
social well-being.